“They were going against two of the best pass rushers in football and I thought we schemed up a little bit with how we were going to give them a little bit of help,” Sherman said. “Obviously, at some point they were on their own and I thought they did a good job. They took good pass sets and again give San Francisco all the credit because they have a very stout group and those outside rushers are demons. But I thought our guys hung in there and gave us a chance.”

Head Coach Joe Philbin was particularly pleased with Martin’s run blocking as he helped open holes on the edge for Bush to gain 65 yards on 14 carries. Pouncey got out on the boundary when Bush caught a screen pass and pancaked a linebacker and Incognito engaged with both Smiths a number of times, visibly frustrating both of them.

But Philbin’s background is as an offensive line coach so he looks at all aspects of the blocking schemes and situations, so he came up with more broad evaluation of the offensive line.